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More than 70 police officers were injured on Monday night
in clashes with rioters armed with molotov cocktails and firecrackers
One officer was shot in the shoulder with an air rifle
"We're dealing with an urban guerrilla tactic
with the use of conventional arms and hunting rifles," said Bruno Beschizza
One rioter with a shotgun "was firing off two shots
Angry youths descended on Villiers-le-Bel for two nights in a row
looting shops and trashing dozens of buildings
The town's library was destroyed in a fire
The riots were sparked on Sunday when two teenagers died in a motorcycle accident involving a police car
The rioters seem to be directing their anger at the police after residents claimed that the two officers involved in the crash fled the scene without helping the boys
and I'm going to be there tonight," said Marc
a 19-year-old who lives on the estate where the accident happened and who would not give his real name
"We don't think it's a good thing to destroy the shops
And we won't stop until justice is made."
a mini-motorcycle and a police car on patrol collided
killing 15-year-old Moushin and his friend Larami
Police said the teenagers were driving an unregistered vehicle and were not wearing helmets
An investigation on suspicion of possible manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident has been opened by the police oversight agency
Police say the riots are more violent than those of late 2005
which also started in a Paris suburb after the death of two youths
both accidentally electrocuted while fleeing police
there's much more violence," said Christophe
a 30-year-old police officer on duty at Villers-le-Bel and during the 2005 riots
"I'd like to pay tribute to the police
who had an extremely difficult night," he said
"Those who shoot at police are criminals and they will be treated as such."
He told firefighters in the town: "We will not let go
We will fight with all the force the nation is capable of."
Yesterday tensions were high in Villiers-le-bel
youths roamed the streets dotted with burned out cars and some broken glass
The mayor asked parents to keep their children at home at night
He said the town's public buildings would be kept open all night to maintain a dialogue with residents
But we understand the anger," said Didier Vaillant during a press conference with other local mayors
"There's too much unemployment in these estates
I am calling to the authorities to do everything they can to make sure this doesn't happen again."
mayor of Gonesse district which also experienced unrest on Monday night
to keep their children and teenagers at home tonight
because I think we don't need new violence in the coming nights."
all belonging to the national opposition Socialist party
unanimously condemned the violence but said the riots did not come as a surprise
They accused the government of not doing enough since the 2005 riots
"Two years ago, I said that it would just take a spark for France to blow up," said Claude Dilain
"I'm not saying nothing has been done since then
but nothing to the scale it should have."
A recent study by the state auditor's office showed that money spent in recent decades has done little to solve the problems
The government said it would reveal in January a plan to offer 250,000 youngsters in the 750 most deprived areas paid training and work experience
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Police officers stop and search a motorbike rider and his passenger who did not wear any helmets, in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. In the run-up to France’s presidential elections in 2022, crime and policing are again becoming hot-button issues. Some political opponents of President Emmanuel Macron argue that France is becoming an increasingly violent country. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A police car arrives at the police station in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. The police station in Sarcelles was attacked in February by youths who launched noisy fireworks and threw stones, according to authorities. No injuries were reported but the attack was one of several targeting police stations that have heightened anxiety in police ranks. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers patrol in a car in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. In the run-up to France’s presidential elections in 2022, crime and policing are again becoming hot-button issues. Some political opponents of President Emmanuel Macron argue that France is becoming an increasingly violent country. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Housing projects are pictured from the police station in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. The view from the Sarcelles police station looks out over tower blocks that were once the height of modernity but which now, like public housing in many of Paris’ tough neighborhoods, often looks worse for wear. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A police officer works in the police station in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. In Sarcelles, police say they work hard not to stir up tensions and try to reassure people by regularly patrolling neighborhoods that are troubled by drug-dealing and other crime. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A police officer works in the police station of the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. In the run-up to France’s presidential elections in 2022, crime and policing are again becoming hot-button issues. Some political opponents of President Emmanuel Macron argue that France is becoming an increasingly violent country. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers stop and search a motorbike driver and his passenger who did not wear any helmets, in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel on Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers patrol in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. On their patrols through the northern Paris suburbs of Sarcelles, Villiers-le-Bel and their surroundings, officers make a point of regularly driving past – and sometimes stopping – at street corners and neighborhoods that they have identified as hotspots for drug dealing and other crimes. Officers say they want to make clear to inhabitants that there are no ‘no-go zones’ for the law. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers check people driving a van in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. In the run-up to France’s presidential elections in 2022, crime and policing are again becoming hot-button issues. Some political opponents of President Emmanuel Macron argue that France is becoming an increasingly violent country. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers arrest three men suspected of setting a bushfire, in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. After being called out to help deal with a fire, night patrols stopped a vehicle carrying young men they suspected may have been involved in setting the blaze. The young men waited patiently and quietly on a roadside kerb until officers let them go. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Rescue workers take care of an injured man after a violent brawl, in Paris suburb Villiers-le-Bel, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. Police who patrol the tough suburbs north of the French capital say they feel that violence is ticking upward. Fights between rival groups are a long-standing problem in the Paris region’s depressed neighborhoods, and police say they’re increasingly bloody. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A police officer, right, secures the evacuation of an injured man after a violent brawl, in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. Police who patrol the tough suburbs north of the French capital say they feel that violence is ticking upward. Fights between rival groups are a long-standing problem in the Paris region’s depressed neighborhoods, and police say they’re increasingly bloody. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officer Damien, 30, questions a witness after a violent brawl in a nearby town, in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. Police who patrol the tough suburbs north of the French capital say they feel that violence is ticking upward. Fights between rival groups are a long-standing problem in the Paris region’s depressed neighborhoods, and police say they’re increasingly bloody. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police major Nicolas, center, talks to a street vendor to check authorizations in the Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. He is a veteran patrolman in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles and its surrounding towns that are hotspots for crime. He is among the officers who say violence is getting worse. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officer Victor walks inside the police station of the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, Tuesday, June, 15, 2021. The police station in Sarcelles was attacked in February by youths who launched noisy fireworks and threw stones, according to authorities. No injuries were reported but the attack was one of several targeting police stations that have heightened anxiety in police ranks. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France (AP) — Both fuming and bragging, the man told the police officers that he used his car as a weapon during the street battle in a northern suburb of Paris, ramming the vehicle into a fighter from a rival group.
“I destroyed him,” the man said. “For certain, he’s at the hospital. He’s got a cut on his skull, he’s got a cut on his mouth.”
For the veteran police major called out to deal with the aftermath of another bloody brawl, the eye-opener this time was the sheer brutality, the clear intent on both sides to gravely wound and perhaps permanently maim.
On a national level, such disorder is translating into polarized and politicized debate about violence ahead of France’s presidential elections next year and local elections this month. President Emmanuel Macron’s opponents are using the perennial hot-button issues of crime and policing to attract votes.
Violent rivalries have long been part of the policing geography in the rotting high-rises of tough Paris-region neighborhoods where inequalities and hardship are often more common than good jobs and opportunities. But police say that fighting over turf or differences of race, religion and cultures wasn’t always as savage as it increasingly is now.
“It’s more and more violent,” the police major said as he worked to reconstruct this week’s chain of events, from a clash in a pipe-smoking bar to a full-blown brawl between opposing groups from Pakistani and North African communities.
“In a fight that perhaps 20 years ago would have been sorted out with fists or kicks, we now see people being run over with cars,” he said. “The population is increasingly violent. It’s no longer simply fighting. They absolutely have to win, even if that means leaving someone in agony on the floor.”
From the police perspective, recent years have been difficult. Like other Western nations, France has seen large and angry protests over fatal cases of police brutality and allegations of law enforcement racism singling out Black people and other minorities.
Police are also increasingly the targets of violence. Most recently, the murders of two police officials in April and May — one in a stabbing, the other in a shooting during a drug bust — reinforced officers’ concerns that enforcing the law in France is an increasingly perilous profession.
One measure of their anxiety is that officers like Major Nicolas, the 46-year-old called out to the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel for the street fight, refuse to be identified by their full names.
Officers say they’re scared of being tracked down at home. They’re under orders to change into civilian clothes when they finish shifts, to avoid being readily identifiable as police officers. Nicolas said he also keeps close watch of his rear-view mirrors on his drive home so he isn’t followed.
Attacks on Paris-region police stations with noisy fireworks, stones and other projectiles have fed tensions. The station in Sarcelles, the Paris suburb where Nicolas is assigned to lead night patrols, was targeted in February.
But out on patrol with Sarcelles officers, it also is evident that their presence is appreciated or, failing that, at least tolerated by many residents.
The family in neighboring Villiers-le-Bel that called for help after the brawl was clearly grateful that officers and rescue workers sped over, lights flashing, to assist injured relatives.
One man seemingly severely beaten in the fight groaned as rescue workers lifted him onto a gurney. Major Nicolas quickly determined that another injured family member had been hit by a car.
Questioning witnesses, the major and his colleagues started piecing together how the conflict spiraled.
“They got calls from their cousins saying, ‘Come quick, we’ve run into trouble over there.’ Everyone rushed over there. Full-on fight,” the major said.
Experience also told him that the enmity likely wouldn’t end there and that another grudge-match was probably brewing.
“They’ll surely have another go at each other,” he said.
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PARIS, Nov. 27 — Two years after France’s immigrant suburbs exploded in rage, the rituals and acts of resentment have reappeared with an eerie sameness: roving gangs clashing with riot police forces, the government appealing for calm, residents complaining that they are ignored.
And while the scale of the unrest of the past few days does not yet compare with the three-week convulsion in hundreds of suburbs and towns in 2005, a chilling new factor makes it, in some sense, more menacing. The onetime rock throwers and car burners have taken up hunting shotguns and turned them on the police.
More than 100 officers have been wounded, several of them seriously, according to the police. Thirty were hit with buckshot and pellets from shotguns, and one of the wounded was hit with a type of bullet used to kill large game, Patrice Ribeiro, a police spokesman, said in a telephone interview. One of the officers lost an eye; another’s shoulder was shattered by gunfire.
It is legal to own a shotgun in France — as long as the owner has a license — and police circles were swirling with rumors that the bands of youths were procuring more weapons.
“This is a real guerrilla war,” Mr. Ribeiro told RTL radio, warning that the police, who have struggled to avoid excessive force, will not be fired upon indefinitely without responding.
The police have made more than 30 arrests but have been restrained in controlling the violence, using tear gas to disperse the bands of young people and firing paint balls to identify people for possible arrests later.
The prefecture of the police in the Val d’Oise area, where most of the violence has occurred, said Tuesday night that there were no reported injuries among civilians that could be linked to the police.
The events of the past three days, set off by the deaths of two teenagers whose minibike collided with a police vehicle on Sunday, make clear that the underlying causes of frustration and anger — particularly among unemployed, undereducated youths, mostly the offspring of Arab and African immigrants — remain the same.
“We have heard promise after promise, but nothing has been done in the suburbs since the last riots, nothing,” said François Pupponi, the Socialist mayor of Sarcelles, which has been struck by the violence, in an interview. “The suburbs are like tinderboxes. You have people in terrible social circumstances, plus all the rage, plus all the hate, plus all the rumors, and all you need is one spark to set them on fire.”
On Tuesday, there were the first signs of the violence spreading beyond the Paris region when a dozen cars were set afire in the southern city of Toulouse.
In the wake of the unrest in 2005, the government of then-President Jacques Chirac (with Nicolas Sarkozy, now the president, as the tough, law-and-order interior minister) announced measures to improve life in the suburbs, including extra money for housing, schools and neighborhood associations, as well as counseling and job training for unemployed youths. None has gone very far.
At that time, Mr. Sarkozy alienated large numbers of inhabitants in the troubled ethnic pockets of France, but afterward reverted to a low-key approach, which he has maintained ever since. During his presidential campaign, he stayed away from the troubled suburbs, aware that his presence could inflame public opinion against him.
In his six months as president, he has largely focused on injecting new life into France’s flaccid economy through creating jobs and lowering taxes and consumer prices.
His most notable initiative in dealing with youth crime has been punitive: the passage of a law last July that required a minimum sentence for repeat offenders and in many cases allowed minors between 16 and 18 years old to be tried and sentenced as adults.
Since September, Fadela Amara, his outspoken junior minister charged with drawing up a policy for the suburbs, has been holding town hall meetings throughout France in preparation for what is to be a “Marshall Plan” for the suburbs. Her proposals are scheduled to be made public in January.
“We’ve been talking about a Marshall Plan for the suburbs since the early 1990s,” said Adil Jazouli, a sociologist who focuses on the suburbs. “We don’t need poetry. We don’t need reflection. We need money.”
After he returns from China on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sarkozy plans to visit a seriously wounded senior policeman at a hospital near the northern Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel.
It was in Villiers-le-Bel on Sunday afternoon that the deaths of two teenagers identified as Moushin, 15, and Larimi, 16, occurred, the event that set off the latest unrest. The teenagers were riding without helmets on a minibike that collided with a police car; rumors that the police had caused the accident elicited calls for revenge.
The crash was reminiscent of the electrocution deaths in another Paris suburb in October 2005 of two teenagers, who, according to some accounts, were running away from police. That event set off the worst civil unrest in France in four decades, plunging the country into what Mr. Chirac called “a profound malaise.”
But Mr. Sarkozy, still reeling from huge transit strikes and student protests throughout France this month, is unlikely to use the current unrest as a vehicle to turn introspective or vent his rage too loudly at those he once called “scum.”
In 2005, he vowed to clean out young troublemakers from one Paris suburb with a Kärcher, the brand name of a high-powered hose used to wash off graffiti; when he pledged in another suburb that year to rid poor suburban neighborhoods of their “scum,” he was pelted with bottles and rocks.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister François Fillon told Parliament that the clashes were “unacceptable, intolerable, incomprehensible,” and he pledged punishment for the offenders in the affected suburbs.
“Those who shoot at policemen, those who beat a police officer almost to death, are criminals and must be treated as such,” he said, adding, “We will do everything so that tonight there is a maximum security presence.”
Under heavy security on Tuesday night, Mr. Fillon visited Villiers-le-Bel, where the two youths had died, in what he called a show of support for the police and firefighters. About 1,000 police officers were deployed there.
Critics of the Sarkozy government complain that many areas in the suburbs are without a police presence, and that the only time there is a show of security is after violence erupts.
“Sarkozy promised to send more police to the suburbs, but in so many places there are fewer police than there were two years ago,” said Mohamed Hamidi, the French founder of Bondy Blog, a popular political blog created in the Paris suburb of Bondy after the outbreak of violence in 2005. “He didn’t keep his word. Who suffers from all the violence and the burning cars? The people who live in these neighborhoods.”
In Villiers-le-Bel on Tuesday night, the atmosphere was tense, with white police trucks and antiriot police officers on the streets. Earlier in the day, about 300 people, including children, marched silently in memory of the two dead teenagers.
At a bakery on a small plaza in town, Habib Friaa, the baker, mourned their deaths, especially that of Larimi, who had started an apprenticeship with him two months ago.
“Baking was his passion,” Mr. Friaa said. “He was a courageous young man, someone who had hope.”
2007 12:00 AM ESTFears of renewed nationwide rioting that rocked France two years ago grew Monday evening
when youths from a suburban Paris housing project staged a second straight night of battles with police
A total of 77 injuries (five serious) among officers have been reported since the rioting began Sunday afternoon
when two teenage residents of Villiers-le-Bel died after their motorcycle collided with a police car
But with the initial attacks on Sunday night having spread to five outlying suburbs during clashes Monday
concern is now rising that rioting may wind up spreading across the nation as it did in 2005 if it manages to ignite resentment bottled up in other French projects
Over 100 youths from the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel 12 miles north of Paris pelted riot police with projectiles for around six hours Monday night; police responded firing back tear gas and flashballs at assailants
and used their intimate knowledge of the labyrinth of project buildings to maneuver security forces into exposed areas
Despite a call for calm by families of the deceased
local youths continued their arson attacks and clashes Monday to protest what they say is police responsibility for the deaths
French government officials have expressed sympathy to the families of the youths killed in the accident; meanwhile
police officials are pushing ahead with an investigation into the crash to verify whether the teens were responsible as evidence suggests
that has not placated young project residents who say they are fed up with the routine police harassment
unemployment and general social stigmatization they receive in the suburbs
known as “banlieues.” The spread of nocturnal rioting to outlying towns Monday night
seems to indicate the rage unleashed in 2005 rioting is still very much intact today
“The basic problems are unchanged: people in the projects don’t have the same educational and economic opportunities others do
and they feel like they’re being shut away in their dismal neighborhoods because the rest of the country doesn’t want them,” says Raphaël Cazenave
a resident of the northern Paris suburb of Bondy who works with schoolchildren from the area
“The way these youths are expressing their anger and disgust is entirely destructive and stupid
Yet they’ll keep doing it just as they have since 2005
despite the headlines the violence in Villiers-le-Bel has generated
periodic clashes with police and bouts of vandalism in reaction to perceived injustices are routine events in France’s banlieues
University of Grenoble Sociology and security professor Sebastian Roché estimates around 100 cars are burned across France on an average night
But what makes events in Villiers-le-Bel different — and potentially contagious to other blighted areas across France — is the passion they’ve generated
Roché says levels of frustration felt in banlieues usually produce an equally powerful reaction to provocation — in this case the death of innocents that mobilized scores of enraged youths into street assemblies
is an intensity of combat with police that is also frequently a factor in violence spreading from one area to others with no connection to initial events
“The extent of physical interaction between police and youths is a significant variable
because it creates passion and outrage among kids elsewhere who have trouble with cops on their own turf
we’ve seen a lot of throwing and firing back and forth,” Roché notes
we’ve had 77 police injuries in just two nights of conflict alone
versus 200 police injuries in three weeks of rioting in 2005
Roché says efforts made by authorities to express remorse over the victims of the accident that set off the rioting — and refrain from denying any responsibility of police in their deaths — marks a major difference with 2005
it was largely the refusal by authorities to even consider that the police had played a role in the deaths of two young residents of Clichy-sous-Bois that whipped their peers into rioting that soon spread across the nation
“It’s that attitude that banlieue residents deserve whatever they get that makes so many people angry,” notes Cazenave
“It still makes them angry — and it should.”
Contact us at letters@time.com
Conflict Rises in ParisThe Washington PostPARIS | Gangs of youths set cars ablaze and clashed with police Monday as street violence spread to at least six towns in the northern Paris suburbs
a night after two teenagers were killed when their motorbike collided with a police cruiser
according to police.Police and French officials urged calm
fearing that the violence in the troubled public housing projects of the suburbs could ignite a wave of arson and attacks similar to the riots that erupted two years ago
Relatives of the victims and some residents said the police fled their damaged vehicle and did not stop to assist the youths after their mini-motorbike smashed into a police car early Sunday evening in Villiers-le-Bel
were traveling at high speed and were not wearing helmets
youths in Villiers-le-Bel hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police
who responded with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas
seemingly nonplussed that they were getting drenched
A storm was blowing rain into the building on the Chêne Pointu estate
Nor were there any lobby windows – just buckled metal and a few shards of smashed-out glass surrounded by graffiti saying "Fuck the police"
but anyway there weren't enough of them for all the people crammed into the block
some sharing rooms in flats run by slum landlords
The lift hadn't worked for six years and residents who couldn't drag their shopping up the unlit stairwell had to rely on young "porters"
Some rigged up pulley systems to hoist shopping to their windows
where the glass was cracked and fixed with tape
Some apartments had walls black with mould
Last year there were 20 tuberculosis cases here
"Even in the third world it's not like this," said Merzuk
Described by a Socialist politician as "France's most run-down estate", La Chêne Pointu has a special place in France's psyche. It was here in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 that the deaths of two boys who had been running from police were the catalyst for the worst riots in modern French history. Three weeks of uprisings spread through high-rise estates across France
with more than 9,000 cars torched and dozens of public buildings trashed
The government declared a state of national emergency
it seemed that the high-rise ghettoes of France's neglected banlieues would have to change forever
the latest twist in a seven-year fight by the boys' families for justice revealed how little has really changed
where more than 70% of the 6,000 residents live under the poverty line
There has been no trial over the deaths of Zyed Benna
who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a sub- station
Last week France's highest court overturned a ruling that the case be dropped
Two police officers could now face trial for failing to come to the boys' aid
"It is terrible it has taken seven years to get a possibility of justice," said Sana Abdelhafidh
"But nothing's going to change here – if anything
There's a semblance of new construction work
but fundamentally it is still the same."
it could plunge to the heart of a central problem still plaguing French society
and which has been the trigger for more recent riots from Clermont-Ferrand in central France to Amiens in the Somme: the dire relationship between police and young people
particularly non-white young men and teenagers
daily discrimination and racism have run local people into the ground in the poorest parts of Clichy-sous-Bois
it is the daily conflict with police that remains a tinderbox
At the centre of the Zyed and Bouna deaths is the continuing issue of police controls
This year more than 20 citizens sued the government over alleged racist policing
claiming that they were stopped by police purely because of the colour of their skin
In January the US-based Human Rights Watch accused French police of carrying out identity checks based on race
A study by the CNRS research institute showed that people of Arab appearance were eight times more likely to be stopped than white people
Police unions denied outright that racism was at play in what campaigners say are continual, arbitrary and at times insulting and aggressive stops made on housing estates, or at Paris locations like the Gare du Nord
or in "white" places such as around the Eiffel tower
black people are stopped and asked what they are doing
Non-white teenagers in certain areas complain of being frisked on their way home from school
While for years the tense relationship with police was blamed on the hardline policies of rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy
the Socialist François Hollande is now under pressure to act
Sarkozy promised during his campaign that the "discrimination" of constant stop and searches against non-white people merely walking down the street would stop
But the government is divided over a promise to issue receipts after police checks
a spokeswoman for the lobby group Stop Le Contrôle au Faciès
said the Zyed and Bouna deaths "have marked a whole generation in France because it could have happened to any of us"
the boys had gone for a football match and were coming home for the evening Ramadan meal
although an inquiry established that they had done nothing wrong
The families' lawyers pointed to the "absurdity" of kids running just because of the police
and police chasing just because they were running
The two boys hid in an electricity sub- station and were killed by tens of thousands of volts
a community worker who after the riots founded the community pressure group AcLefeu
said: "This struggle for justice is not against the police; it is about them taking the stand and saying what happened
it is important to be acquitted before a court
It has been hard to convince young people to move beyond that tense relationship with police when they thought there was a sense of impunity
feel there has been no fundamental change here since the riots
the economic crisis had made the scourge of unemployment even worse – on estates such as La Chêne Pointu
where more than half the population is under 25
Young French people here still say their address
skin colour and "non-French-sounding names" mean that their CVs are thrown in the bin
Despite new building work and the town's first ever police station – which is so grandiose it looks like an opera house – there is still no unemployment office
The state has a plan to renovate the privately owned Chêne Pointu estate
but there is still no direct transport route from the capital
in his council flat in the high-rise estates of Villiers-le- Bel
Mara Kanté explains why the notion of justice for Zyed and Bouna is so important across France
riots broke out in Villiers-le-Bel after two teenagers were killed when a motorbike they were riding collided with a police car
It was the first time firearms were widely used against police
a local football star who had trials in England and played no role in the attacks on police
He was cleared on appeal after a controversial trial before which the police had offered cash rewards and anonymity in exchange for witness statements
"I am not the only one who's been through something like this; lots of people have," he said
"It is just that I fought hard to speak out about it
There is a justice system with several speeds depending on your social class
"It is still very tense between young people and police here
There is a pseudo-politeness to them which is like putting a tiny bit of sticking plaster over a big open scar
Society still seems totally divided."
This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025
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vowed today to take a tough stance against rioters after a third night of violence in a rundown Paris suburb spread to the south-western city of Toulouse
"What has happened is absolutely unacceptable," Sarkozy said after meeting a wounded police captain at a hospital in Eaubonne
the president focused on armed rioters who had shot at police on Monday evening
"We will find the shooters," he said
promising to "bring them to account before justice"
He described the incident that sparked the violence - the death on Sunday of two teenagers riding a motorbike in an accident with a police car in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel - as "distressing"
But he added: "Shooting at police has no link to this incident."
This morning Sarkozy also visited the families of the two accident victims
Reuters quoted him saying shooting at police "has a name - attempted murder"
He added: "It is not something we can tolerate
no matter how dramatic the deaths of these two youngsters on a motorbike may be."
Sarkozy stopped short of describing the rioters as "racaille" - a word that literally translates as "rabble" but is perceived to mean "scum" in the suburbs
His use of that term as interior minister in 2005 inflamed similar unrest taking place then
The current violence has many echoes of those riots
They also began in a deprived Paris suburb and were sparked by the death of youths in an accident involving the police
the current unrest has spread outside Paris
Several cars and two libraries were set alight in Toulouse last night
In the Paris suburbs there has been less violence than on the previous two nights
Large numbers of police in riot gear appear to have controlled the unrest
although several cars had been set on fire
The beefed-up police presence would remain "as long as necessary"
Some 39 people had been arrested in and around Paris last night
The authorities are alarmed by the use of guns in the current disturbances
There have long been tensions between France's largely white police force and ethnic minorities housed in high concentrations in public housing blocks in city suburbs
Travel 20 kilometres north of central Paris, passing the Stade de France as you go, and you will reach the town of Villiers-le-Bel. It was here that Axel Disasi grew up, having been born in 1998 in the nearby commune of Gonesse.
Like so many, Disasi’s first footballing experiences were playing on the street with his friends, and at school on the playground’s hard courts. There is a specific memory that springs to his mind when he returns to his earliest days playing the game.
‘My brother Divin used to take the bus to go to football training, and I would wait with him at the bus station,’ says Axel.
‘One day, when the bus arrived, he got on the bus, and I wanted to join him. He said, ‘No, no, no, Axel, don’t come with me’. I was crying. I wanted to go, but I was only about five years old. One guy on the bus said, ‘Let your brother come’. So my brother let me.
‘I was on the side of the pitch watching training. One of the guys got injured and the coach was looking around. He looked at me and asked who this guy was. I said I was the brother of Divin.
‘He asked if I wanted to play. Of course! I trained well, and he said afterward that I should bring my stuff next time.’
Disasi’s footballing story was up and running. Away from the fields, streets and playgrounds where he spent many hours honing his craft, Disasi enjoyed growing up in a Parisian suburb. His mother cared for older patients in a hospital while his father had several jobs, mostly running small shops.
‘We had a lot of cultures and nationalities there,’ he says of his hometown.
‘It was good to grow up with different kinds of cultures, different kinds of people. Today I can speak with everyone because of the way I grew up. I learned a little bit about how different cultures think. I wouldn’t say life was hard, but it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of solidarity in the community. I keep good memories of this period.
‘My parents are of Congolese and Angolan heritage. My brothers and I grew up with this culture. Our family made sure of that. My mum was cooking typical meals from there. It’s good to have this base. It helped me grow up and be the man I am today.
‘I’ve been once to Congo, in 2017,’ Disasi adds. ‘It was great. It was the first time I saw where my dad came from. I learned how life can be for some people. There it is very difficult. Since that trip, I realised the chance I had in France.’
It did not come easily. As Le Parisien newspaper wrote in December 2015, Disasi ‘slipped through the net of scouts’. He did not join a professional club, Paris FC, until a few months after his 16th birthday.
He had played only for Villiers-le-Bel - his hometown club where he had that first training session with his elder brother Divin all those years earlier - and USM Senlis, another amateur Paris club. After one season there, Paris FC came calling.
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‘My journey was not a typical journey,’ Disasi begins
I was going to school and practising football at the same time
When I started there were a lot of normal players coming from other academies
and I was one of the only ones coming from a normal club
I had one coach who was very good to learn from
After six months I was promoted to the next age group
It was then that I realised the journey was starting.’
director of the Paris FC academy and coach of the Under-19 France team
told Le Parisien in 2015 that Disasi ‘comes from very away
It was an unorthodox route to the professional game
‘I was taking the train to go to school and football at the same time,' Disasi remembers
'I was leaving the house at 8.30am and coming back at 7pm
I was playing with the professionals for Paris FC
I remember doing my homework on the train and falling asleep
made his senior debut for Paris FC as a 17-year-old in a Coupe de France first-round tie
He still didn’t have a professional contract and that did not change when he joined Reims ahead of the 2016/17 season
‘They didn’t want to sign me as a professional
so they gave me one year as a semi-professional
they said they wouldn’t give me a professional contract
‘It was that summer I went to Congo with my family
and then I signed my contract maybe two or three weeks later
I got my first call-up to the national team
The following season was tougher going as he scarcely featured
only starting his first game on the final day
He had intended to then go on loan to Ligue 2 but instead was handed his chance at Reims
remaining an ever-present in their defence until joining Monaco in August 2020
Senior France caps and a move to Chelsea have since come Disasi’s way
Why is Disasi the only player he knows from the amateur clubs he represented for so long
They never let me think I was on top of the world
‘The obstacles I had to overcome helped make me who I am today
People like Benoit [Badiashile] left home when they were 13 or 14
‘I am someone who likes to learn,’ adds Disasi
I would like to keep learning in the future
unemployment and race discrimination two years after major riots in 2005
the site of France's first suburban riots in 1979
Fadela Amara - an outspoken leftwing campaigner handed responsibility for the plan - promised to create 45,000 new jobs in areas where up to half of young men who are black or of north African origin are out of work
who grew up on a rough estate with her illiterate Algerian parents and still insists on living in a council flat
said the aim was to cut youth unemployment by 40% in three years
providing tutors for struggling children and work placements for school-leavers
The government will invest €1bn (£750m) on education
employment schemes and transport focusing on 100 out of more than 300 areas that erupted in violence in 2005
Amara said she wanted to create a banlieue elite and restore hope to French citizens in these ghettoes who were treated as outcasts because of their colour
a France that is very poor" and tense
and the president's desire to take control of the plans himself meant yesterday's promises of jobs and investment were thin on detail
Sarkozy has promised a full explanation of his strategy for the riot-hit suburbs at a media event at a tower block next month
The French president is a hate figure to many of the 5 million who live on France's decaying suburban estates after he called wayward youths "scum" and endorsed riot police squads when he was interior minister
He was unable to do walkabouts during his election campaign last year because of fear for his own safety
But before his election he promised an ambitious "Marshall Plan" for the banlieues that would end the poor living conditions
discrimination and poverty in neighbourhoods where the rate of unemployment for under-25s hovers around 35%
The urgent need for action was driven home by riots last November in Villiers-le-Bel
Sarkozy staged a surprise visit to a fragile estate west of Paris
He told youths: "We won't let anyone down
on one condition: that those who have been given advice and training make the effort to get up in the morning."
the government announced it would restore a form of community policing - a practice Sarkozy had scrapped as interior minister
favouring the sporadic use of riot police and officers bussed in from outside
The president also vowed to compensate people whose cars are torched on estates
At least 46,800 cars were burned in France in 2007
is hoping that his own highly-anticipated detailed banlieue plan next month will boost his standing
"If this is just another thin sprinkling [of measures] it won't work," warned the Socialist mayor of Villiers-le-Bel
Mike Maignan during AC Monza against AC Milan
(Photo by Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Mike Maignan, who returned to Villiers-le-Bel where he grew up, for the national team, spoke to the fans present about AC Milan's game against Paris Saint-Germain and a possible return to Paris
"I've already played against them when I was at Lille
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an elevator whisks Halima to a world far removed from her home in the gritty Sarcelles suburb north of Paris – the ritzy Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower
“I never imagined being here one day,” said Halima
one of 15 immigrant women selected for a culinary training course in the overwhelmingly masculine world of master chef Alain Ducasse’s Parisian restaurants
I just wanted to get a job to bring money home at the end of the month,” Halima
said as she put finishing touches on some hors d’oeuvres in the bustling kitchen
34-year-old Linda makes her way three days a week to the Plaza Athenee
a luxury hotel in the ultra-chic eighth arrondissement of Paris
Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee is one of three Ducasse restaurants boasting the top nod of three stars from the prestigious Michelin guide
Both women learned of the programme through word of mouth
Halima from an acquaintance at her youngest son’s day care centre
To be eligible the women had to be immigrants or born to immigrant parents
a petite brunette who arrived in France barely a year ago from Oran in northwestern Algeria and has four children
a mother’s helper and cleaning airplanes at Charles de Gaulle airport
Quinze Femmes en Avenir (Fifteen Women in the Future) attracted 85 applicants
sombre town geographically 16 kilometres from Paris
but separated by a gulf of culture and wealth
One in three of the inhabitants is under 20
to be a Muslim makes the hard task of finding a satisfying job tougher still
Asked why Ducasse set up the scheme his staff say he wanted to “offer women in difficult social and personal circumstances a vision for the future” and give them the “keys to reaching a lasting job”
The project is linked to former US President Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative which suggested that the superstar chef might train women as part of the initiative’s search for “innovative solutions to meet the great challenges of our time”
Limda actually had some experience in the field – working as a temp making meals for Air France personnel – and was keen to discover the universe of fine food
Working towards their certificate of professional aptitude in cuisine
Linda and Halima must be proficient at cooking up such refined dishes as coq au vin
entrecote sautee Bercy and poularde pochee sauce supreme
with sincerity and love,” Christophe Saintagne
“The goal is not to turn her into a chef but to teach her professionalism
punctual and does not shy away from the task”
in Sarcelles for Linda and in the south of France for Halima
the programme assures them of a job with Mr Ducasse
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Police will step up security in north Paris suburbs to prevent a third night of unrest
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said yesterday
promising a firm line against rioters who attack police
Around 80 police were injured overnight as rioters pelted police with stones
petrol bombs and firecrackers during several hours of skirmishes in Villiers and nearby areas
Police replied with tear gas and rubber bullets and made five arrests
"We're going to do everything so that this evening there is a maximum security presence in Villiers-le-Bel and the neighbouring areas
because the residents should not have to relive another night of violence," Mr Fillon told Parliament
incomprehensible" and could not be justified
"Those who fire on the police and who beat a police officer nearly to death
are criminals and must be treated like criminals," said Mr Fillon
Five police officers were seriously hurt overnight
including one hit by a projectile apparently fired from a hunting rifle
President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet Mr Fillon and his interior and justice ministers to discuss the crisis on his return from China today
He will first visit injured police officers in hospital
The violence started on Sunday after two youths died in a collision with police
a school and a library revived images of suburban riots two years ago
Those disturbances were the worst civil unrest in France for 40 years and many blamed the harsh rhetoric of Mr Sarkozy
President Sarkozy has called for calm and the lower key government response suggested it wants to avoid exacerbating tensions in France's deprived
The latest disturbances distracted from Mr Sarkozy's success in clinching billions of euros of contracts for French firms on his China trip
and provided a new headache following recent transport strikes and student protests over his reforms
Link Copied!2018 World Champions France begin another quest for their 3rd European Championships. This time they will go into the tournament without their previous captain Hugo Lloris, who retired from international soccer. But, to the relief of Kylian Mbappe’s team
they have a formidable replacement in the form of Mike Maignan
The goalkeeper has made a mark for himself with some high-level goalkeeping including fast reflexes and astonishing saves and winning league titles in two different European leagues
But all his success is just the tip of the iceberg as sacrifices from his family went into it
we look at who these impactful people in his life are along with his relationships
Mike Maignan was born on 3rd July 1995 in Cayenne
It has been reported that his parents come from different regions; his father’s background is from French Guadeloupe
But additional details regarding Maignan’s father
Additionally reports claim that he was taken care of by his mother who worked very hard and did not know about his father
The 29-year-old goalkeeper later moved to Villiers-le-Bel where he grew up
🗣️ Mike Maignan: “My greatest pride is helping my mother. On the other hand, I didn’t take her out on my first pro contract, I didn’t have the means yet. I took her out after the 2nd or 3rd contract Her tears are… It’s a joy, it means that I succeeded The tears she shed when I… pic.twitter.com/cuPcNNnSvv
— Football Talk (@FootballTalkHQ) August 30, 2023
Hence the goalie said, “Everything good that happens to your family, and even more so to your mother, is your greatest pride,” citing that his family’s success is paramount. However, is it only the mother in his family?
Mike Maignan keeps most of his family life private. Not much has been revealed about his family members even on social media. However, he once mentioned how hard his mother worked for him and his brothers and sisters. In addition, reports suggest that he has two sisters and two brothers.
More intriguingly, the star has kept his romantic life private leaving fans to speculate about his relationship status. But, few reports claim that he has two children. Nevertheless, the star looks content after achieving success and making his mother proud. And with the backing of his dear ones, the star will try to bag his first international trophy with his national team.
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